Self defense or manslaughter

[joeranger]

My brother awoke to the sound of somebody fumbling around upstairs; he lives on the garder level of a city 3 flat. He walks upstairs to see which of his roommates is making all of the noise, and sees a strange guy looking in all of the drawers and cabinets. They have a deer in the headlights moment and my brother runs back downstairs with the guy running after him yelling "Hey man it's cool, it's cool!" He goes into his closet, grabs the shotgun, shells, gets one in, drops the other, thinks, reaches down, grabs it, loads it, chambers a round comes out of the room and literally "boinks" the guy in the forehead with the end of the barrel. No shot fired. The guy explains that he is a mover with a company working upstairs, he accidentally backed into the door which opened, and he was checking to make sure "everything was OK". OK, he was a mover working upstairs, but he was also probably robbing the place.
If my brother had shot him instead of "doing shots" with him (they were both pretty shaken), what happens next?

 

[Chaingunner]

assuming a liberal judge, jury, and prosecuting attorney...

he goes to jail.

assuming the other end of the spectrum...

he gets off.

 

[silicon wolverine]

It also depends on what state on is in. In my wonderful home state of south dakota if someone is in your home without your permission (and this guy was digging through stuff thats a clear marker) you have the right to use lethal force without fear of prosecution. fo course there will be an investigation and you'll never see your gun again but hey.

SW

 

[Neophyte]

Joeranger, and I say this with all due respect to you, if what you say is true your brother's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Not only did he buy some of the lowest grade BS I've heard in a while ("Oh no! This place is unlocked totally by coincidence! Let me make sure a terrorist didn't sneak in and plant dirty bombs in the drawers and closets!"), but he then decided to DRINK with the guy instead of calling the cops to sort the whole thing out (because the mover can leave and call the cops on him). S-M-R-T smart!

I think you should buy your brother's shotgun off him. Sure, he's got the right to be armed...but maybe we would all be safer if he wasn't?

Anyway, to go back to your question, I agree with the others that it depends on where this occurs. However, most places not utterly infested with hoplophobes will say that you can use lethal force to defend youself against a home intruder - you don't have to put on your mindreading helmet to determine their intent.

Granted, if the intruder was actually not intending a criminal act you'd be under tighter scrutiny than otherwise, but as long as you were reasonably in fear for your life and you didn't do anything shady you probably won't go all the way to a trial. DAs have a better use for their time than prosecuting a case where they know they'll just get a no-bill.

This doesn't mean you won't need a good lawyer and the money to pay them. Beyond the criminal charges you might face, there's still the inevitable civil lawsuit. Pulling that trigger will cost money. Best be sure it's really necessary.